Hardsync – DDR Reimagined for the C64

For those of you that like to play dance games, but [DDR] for the [PS2] uses too modern hardware for your tastes, [Hardsync] may be for you. Although the chiptune-style music coming out of the [C64] may not appeal to everyone, one would have to imagine that a game like this could have been a huge hit 30 years ago.

As for the hardware itself, it does indeed use one PS2 element, the dance mat. It’s hooked into one of the C64 joystick ports. In this case, the cable was cut, but it would also be possible to make a non-destructive adapter for it so as not to interfere with any future PS2 fun.

The program is made so that fellow retro-dancers can make their own songs. Each song is a discreet file, and can be reconfigured to your own personal mix. Be sure to check out the video after the break of this old-school dance machine in use after the break!

10 thoughts on “Hardsync – DDR Reimagined for the C64”

Ironically, a lot of the nicer dance pads (hard mats) are actually built for multiple systems with breakout ports (DB-9’s, usually) that just short pins to a common ground when a panel is stepped on; they’re made this way so that you can buy a small box that will adapt it to a different console, without lag (DDR players can’t stand adapter lag). Using one of those for this would require just a wire with the appropriate pinouts on each end — even easier than the small PS2 controller (SPI) to gameport adapter box they’ve got for here.

Great project, great build, lots of polish, and looks like people have been enjoying it. That’s more than I can say for most of my projects!

Cool. There’s even a “Guitar Hero”, called Shredz64 for Commodore 64 from the guy designed the mentioned PSX64 (PS1/PS2 to C64) interface: http://www.toniwestbrook.com/shredz64 (It was mentioned on this blog before, but only in comments.)